9 June 2006
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson, CRITFC,
(503) 731-1257
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Columbia
River Tribes complete world's largest wild salmon tagging project
Data
from the 20-year effort benefits fisheries management coast-wide
Portland, Oregon
- Tribal fisheries
management crews working in the Columbia River's Hanford Reach this
week completed annual work on the world's largest long-term tagging
project of a wild salmon stock. A total of 205,145 Hanford Reach salmon,
commonly referred to as upriver bright fall Chinook, were implanted
with a laser-etched wire tag, 1.1 milimeters in length, between May
25th and June 4th. Information recovered from tagged salmon will provide
scientists with information on migration timing and distribution as
well as contribution to ocean and river fisheries. These data are
also vital to managers for shaping fishing seasons and monitoring
the population.
"Our goal was to tag 200,000 wild fall Chinook salmon smolts
in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River" said Dr. Jeff Fryer,
lead scientist for the Hanford Reach coded-wire-tagging project. "We
exceeded that goal in some of the most challenging river conditions
we've encountered in years."
River flows below Priest Rapids Dam were 220 KCFS, the highest ever
in which the project has met its goal of 200,000 fish tagged. Fish
capture is much more difficult during high flows due to fish moving
up into trees and brush that cannot be easily fished with nets.
Crews from the Yakama Nation, Umatilla tribes and the Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission captured salmon smolts with stick seines
which were then transferred to troughs for counting, measurement,
fin clipping and tagging supervised by Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife biologist Paul Graham, an 18 year veteran of the tagging
project.
The upriver bright fall Chinook is a robust population with high vitality
that feeds fisheries from Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington,
and along the Oregon Coast as well as non-treaty and treaty fisheries
in the Columbia River. The population's success is widely attributed
to the preservation of its spawning area in the free-flowing Hanford
Reach.
The Pacific Salmon Commission funds the Hanford Reach coded-wire-tagging
project.
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About CRITFC
The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is
the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management
policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
CRITFC, formed in 1977, employs biologists, other scientists, public
information specialists, policy analysts and administrators who work
in fisheries research and analyses, advocacy, planning and coordination,
harvest control and law enforcement. |
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